1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink supply assembly including at least one inlet port, at least one outlet port connected to the inlet port via an ink cavity and adapted to be connected to an ink discharge unit of an ink jet device. The assembly has a sandwich structure formed by at least two plate members and a foil that is interposed therebetween and has a part forming a wall of the ink cavity. At least one of said plate members defines a pressure equalization chamber adjacent to the ink cavity and separated therefrom by said foil.
2. Description of Background Art
A known ink supply assembly of this type has been described in EP-A-1 658 978. Another known ink supply assembly has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,692,113 and is used for a page wide ink jet printhead. The ink discharge units of this printhead are formed by chip-like micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), each of which forms a plurality of nozzles and associated actuators for creating and expelling ink droplets through the nozzles. The chips are butted against one another so as to form a continuous line extending over the entire width of the printing medium and are tiled such that they define a continuous nozzle array with uniform nozzle pitch, even at the boundaries between adjacent MEMS. In a color printer, a separate nozzle array is provided for each of the different colors.
The purpose of the ink supply assembly is to distribute the ink of the various colors into the nozzles of all the MEMS of the printhead. The ink supply system in its entirety may be composed of a plurality of ink distribution tiles that are butted against one another and each of which serves a plurality of MEMS. In the known design, each ink distribution tile is composed of two plate members, e.g. micro-moldings that are made of liquid crystal polymer (LCP), that are bonded together face-to-face with the foil that is made of polyimide, for example, being interposed therebetween. The inlet ports for the ink of different colors are formed in the top plate member, and the outlet ports are formed in the bottom plate member. Ink passages are formed by the cavities formed in the plate members on either side of the foil and by through-holes in the foil. The cavities and the through-holes are arranged such that the ink passages for different colors are separated from one another.